This morning I have to call one of the government agencies involved in that mistake made by a former employer. The former employer made the mistake, I have to deal with the consequences! Anyway, it was the first thing I thought of when I woke up this morning, after a good night’s sleep. I arose at 6:00 a.m., and could not make the call until after 8:30 a.m.. So I had to wait around for two and half hours for the government to “wake up”, before I could make my call.
Finally the call was made and the waiting times were so long (over 35 minutes) that I hung up. Then I tried to login on the government website. This was an option discussed during my last telephone conversation with this arm of the state. My login did not work at all. In fact, it told me it had never heard of me! That necessitated yet another call, and I was told that the whole system was revamped and I had to register AGAIN with new username and password. Did that. Logged in. The information told me that the issue has not yet been reviewed. Only took a few frustrating hours to get nowhere!
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Yesterday I mentioned that I was looking for a recipe for salad dressing. The recipe I tried is not something I will try again. There was an aftertaste that was unpleasant to me. Luckily I only made enough for two salads. One down, one to go.
Sarah suggested a salad dressing of lemon curd mixed with white balsamic vinegar, in yesterday’s entry comments. Making good use of the waiting time this morning, I stood before range and the double boiler, whisking a batch of lemon curd. It is so good! It is cooling on the counter in a glass jar, to go into the fridge in a few hours. I think I’ll give Sarah’s suggestion a try tonight on my salad at dinner.
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Bex at Crow Cottage shared some media pictures of the snow storm in the UK. That snowy landscape looks so familiar. All I have to do is look out the window!
Actually, as I was reading the news article at the link she provided, I heard shouting outside. Looking out the window, I saw that a vehicle had attempted to drive down an unploughed drive, just down the road a bit! What! That is private property, and not theirs! I do not know what they were doing there in the first place. They might have been trying to turn around, but there are some cleared drives along this road, so why would they have chosen an uncleared drive? Their behaviour defies logic.
They were stuck and must have called friends on their cell phone. Three men were pushing the vehicle out, shouting back and forth. When they had finally freed the stuck vehicle, they got into their vehicles and they all drove off. It is isolated here, so when strangers are up to all sorts I do not venture forth to investigate, too dangerous. I do not hesitate to call the police though, if a stranger’s behaviour seems off at all. The police always arrive within minutes, it is impressive!
It seems the summer people are coming up a little early from the cities. The snow is still piled high here. The thing is, this is not a city landscape, and cannot be navigated in the same way. Sometimes these visitors hurt themselves; they drown in the lakes, swimming and boating where or when they should not, or going through thin ice on snowmobiles. Sometimes they die when their ATVs hit trees or rocks at high speeds, and often they are involved in motor accidents when the road conditions are weather affected.
Mother nature commands respect.
Cidiot: “Derived from City+idiot. Someone from the city who’s utterly crippled by an inability to survive outside city limits or comprehend any merit or logic in rural life or people…”
Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cidiot
Worldly Distractions
Weather
3 °C
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 100.7 kPa
Visibility: 16 km
Temperature: 3.2°C
Dewpoint: -4.6°C
Humidity: 57 %
Wind: ENE 13 gust 32 km/h
Quote
“Habit is necessary; it is the habit of having habits, of turning a trail into a rut, that must be incessantly fought against if one is to remain alive.”
Edith Wharton
1862 – 1937
PS
I just had to share this, which someone shared on Facebook. I will be giving this a try myself!
Do you know, the only words I understood were “hair” and “on”. I feel so provincial.
I grew up on a remote farm in a wooded area of upstate Connecticut, where the only residents lived way down the road, and summer saw an influx of tourists who wanted to go horseback riding and pretend to the farm life. When snowed it, it would have been unusual indeed to have seen someone try to negotiate the drive and a cause for caution. Sometimes people perceive such places as an opportunity for uncivilized behavior.
I know what you mean Sarah, the audio was beyond me as well. But the video element was graphically satisfying! Actually I tried it, but lost my hair tie up the vacuum wand! LOL
Your remote farm sounds familiar Sarah, and the influx of tourists. Here there are lakes and cottages though, instead of beautiful farmland. The cottagers vote and dominate the local government, so that the interests of people who actually live and work here are overshadowed by those who need not work in the community, enjoy great wealth, and see the area as a leisure paradise.